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Business March 10, 2017

Falling Stars: Negative Yelp Reviews Target Trump Restaurants, Hotels

The Trump Grill at Trump Tower in New York City in December. Now that Donald Trump is president, online reviews of his hotels, restaurants and other properties have become much more politicized.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

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Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

After purportedly stopping in at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s Palm Beach resort, not long ago, a visitor went straight to Google’s online review site to complain about the restaurant ambience.

“Very loud and distracting dinner atmosphere,” the visitor noted. “I just wanted a quiet peaceful meal, but White House staff and diplomats at the next table kept shouting out classified information.”

People who dislike Trump politically have found a new way of venting their fury and in the process perhaps hitting him in his wallet: They can leave a lousy review on sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google.

Of course there are also plenty of pro-Trump reviews from Trump fans. But since Trump’s nomination at the Republican convention last summer, negative reviews on Yelp and Google have begun outpacing positive reviews by a factor of 6 to 4, says Signpost, a marketing software company.

Some of the reviews are funny; others, just nasty.

“Not a pleasant experience,” noted one person about the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York. “I felt like I was going to be groped the whole time.”

“The person who runs these hotels is a giant racist which is pretty ironic for someone who is Orange-American. Would not recommend,” said another.

It’s not just that some of the reviews are snarky. More and more users have also been giving Trump’s U.S. hotels and restaurants one-star ratings, Signpost says.

“In February, in particular, we saw a spike in one-star reviews. There were about 160 one-star reviews written for Trump properties in the month of February alone,” noted Stuart Wall, Signpost’s founder and CEO.

For the Trump Organization, which didn’t return requests for comment for this story, that’s a potential cause for concern.

People who don’t even read reviews nevertheless may rely heavily on ratings systems to choose hotels and restaurants, research suggests. In fact, many people shopping for hotels begin by looking at the highest-ranked properties, which puts those farther down the list at a disadvantage.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Luca studied the impact of a Yelp ratings downgrade on restaurants in Seattle between January 2003 and October 2009.

“For independent restaurants, Yelp ratings matter a lot,” he concluded. “A one-star increase maps to about a 5 [to] 9 percent increase in sales.” He cautions that the impact is not as strong for chain restaurants and for well-known brand names, which certainly includes Trump.

For its part, Yelp tries to protect the integrity of its content by using humans to weed out politically tinged reviews.

For example, a banner is now posted on the page for Trump SoHo New York warning, “This business is being monitored by Yelp’s support team for content related to media reports.”

The site also uses software that “takes a whole number of factors into account as to whether we should trust or rely on that content, based on how much we know about that user,” says Vincent Sollitto, Yelp senior vice president.

But not all review sites use such software and even if they do, no program can screen out all politically motivated content.

Still, all is hardly lost for the Trump Organization, Luca says.

He notes that the company has talked about building more properties in the U.S. and abroad, and recently doubled the Mar-a-Lago initiation fee. That suggests that for Trump, the benefits of being president still outweigh the disadvantages.

“It seems that at least Trump thinks that the benefits of the brand-building of being president [have] a bigger effect than any negative effect that might be coming through an influx of negative reviews,” he says.

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Health March 10, 2017

Trump Chooses Dr. Scott Gottlieb To Head Food And Drug Administration

Scott Gottlieb, FDA deputy commissioner for policy, speaks to reporters at the Reuters Health summit in New York in 2005.

Chip East/Reuters

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Chip East/Reuters

Updated 7:30 p.m. ET

Dr. Scott Gottlieb is President Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration, according to a statement from the White House.

Gottlieb is a political conservative and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he has focused his research on the FDA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

An internist and hospitalist, Gottlieb has played leading roles in various government health agencies, including as deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs at the FDA during the George W. Bush administration. Before that, he was a senior policy adviser at CMS working on the implementation of Medicare’s then-new drug coverage for seniors.

Gottlieb is a prolific writer on health care issues, particularly the pharmaceutical industry. He is seen as a strong supporter of that industry and has championed deregulation.

“I think Scott is absolutely qualified,” lawyer John Taylor of Greenleaf Health tells STAT. “He has good professional credentials and personal integrity, and a track record that shows the ability to make difficult decisions.”

While Trump has promised at various times to make fairly radical changes at the FDA, Gottlieb is a seen as a conventional choice for commissioner by a Republican president.

Earlier in the year, odds were favoring the nomination of Jim O’Neill, an associate of Silicon Valley entrepreneur and billionaire Peter Thiel, a close Trump adviser. O’Neill created waves when he called for drugs to be approved as soon as they had been judged to be safe but before they are proved to be effective, as required under current law.

Should Gottlieb be approved by the Senate, one early target he may aim for is so-called off-label promotion of prescription drugs. The Obama administration issued tighter restrictions on how companies could market drugs for conditions not mentioned on drug labels — signifying the lack of FDA approval for that cause. Gottlieb has been highly critical of the Obama rules.

Gottlieb has many possible financial conflicts that could feature prominently in his confirmation hearings. He serves on advisory boards for several major pharmaceutical companies.

“Gottlieb is entangled in an unprecedented web of Big Pharma ties,” says Dr. Michael Carome, the director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, a pro-consumer advocacy group. “He has spent most of his career dedicated to promoting the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and the U.S. Senate must reject him.”

According to the ProPublica website Dollars for Docs, Gottlieb received more than $400,000 between August 2013 and December 2015 in promotional talks, research, consulting and travel while practicing at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut.

As FDA commissioner, Gottlieb would oversee an agency that has regulatory power over a quarter of the U.S. economy, including not just pharmaceuticals but medical devices, food safety, cosmetics and other areas of human and animal health.

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Entertainment March 9, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: The Significance of SXSW, Dreaming of Janelle Monae in 'Deadpool 2' and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Film Festival Preview of the Day:

On the eve of this year’s SXSW, Jacob T. Swinney showcases the film festival’s past world premieres for Fandor Keyframe:

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Dream Casting of the Day:

We now know that Zazie Beetz is playing Domino in Deadpool 2, but here’s a look at how the recently rumored Janelle Monae might have looked in the role via BossLogic:

Here’s @JanelleMonae as domino (Rumoured front runner then denied) wanted to try something a little different for fun, hope you guys like it pic.twitter.com/WIcjoyCod7

— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) March 9, 2017

Custom Fan Build of the Day:

Cornhole looks a lot more fun when played using this enhanced Star Wars-inspired Death Star board (via Geekologie):

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Movie Comparison of the Day:

With Moana out on home video this week, Couch Tomato shows how Disney basically just remade their own Hercules:

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Film History Lesson of the Day:

See the evolution of 2D animation in this chronological supercut from the Solomon Society (via /Film):

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Juliette Binoche, who turns 53 today, with director Anthony Minghella on the set of Best Picture winner The English Patient:

Actor in the Spotlight:

Samuel L. Jackson recreated many of his iconic movie roles in 11 minutes with help from James Corden on The Late Late Show:

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Filmmaker in Focus:

Alfred Hitchcock talks about dead bodies in an interview newly animated for the PBS digital series Blank on Blank:

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Supercut of the Day:

See more heist movie sequences fluidly mashed together in 1LineMovieShorts’s second robbery supercut:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 10th anniversay of the release of Zack Snyder’s 300. Watch the original trailer for the graphic novel adaptation below.

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Business March 9, 2017

Engineers Say Tax Increase Needed To Save Failing U.S. Infrastructure

There are 59,000 structurally deficient bridges around the country.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The nation’s roads, bridges, airports, water and transit systems are in pretty bad shape, according to the civil engineers who plan and design such infrastructure.

The new report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the infrastructure of the United States a D-plus.

That nearly failing grade should boost President Trump’s efforts to get a plan to invest up to $1 trillion in rebuilding everything from highways and bridges to tunnels and dams, even though the engineers’ group is recommending something the president and his party are unlikely to support: a huge increase in the gasoline tax.

It’s not as though many of our bridges are about to collapse or our cars likely to be swallowed up by potholes, but according to ASCE, a significant number of the critical structures and systems that we rely on to get us to and from work, that provide us with clean drinking water, and that protect us from floods are in pretty bad shape.

Take the nation’s roads, for example, which Greg DiLoreto, a former president of ASCE, says get the same disappointing grade as four years ago: a D.

“More than 2 out of every 5 miles of America’s urban interstates are congested, and traffic delays cost this country $160 billion in wasted fuel and time,” says DiLoreto.

Because roads and highways are out of date and unable to handle today’s demand, DiLoreto says, “on average, Americans waste 43 hours a year stuck in traffic. Or in other words, one in your two weeks’ vacation, gone.”

He says the nation’s aging airports are increasingly congested, too.

“It is expected that by 2020, 24 of our 30 major airports will experience Thanksgiving Day peak traffic at least once a week,” DiLoreto says.

In addition, America’s water systems are leaking trillions of gallons of water, more than 2,000 dams are at high risk of failure, and there are 59,000 structurally deficient bridges around the country.

“Structurally deficient doesn’t mean they are unsafe,” DiLoreto says. “But it does mean they require more repair and more frequent inspections.”

Mass transit earns the worst grade of all, a D-minus.

“The nation’s transit systems are chronically underfunded, resulting in aging infrastructure and a $90 billion maintenance backlog,” DiLoreto says.

Getting all of the nation’s infrastructure into relatively good shape by the year 2025 would cost $4.59 trillion, according to the ASCE report; that’s $2 trillion more than is budgeted by local, state and federal governments to address infrastructure needs.

ASCE Executive Director Tom Smith says the chronic failure to invest in infrastructure is a huge drain on the nation’s economy, putting American jobs and lives at risk.

“Unfortunately, we have a tendency to wait for disasters and be reactive, and what we want to do is be proactive and not reactive,” Smith says. “Because when we’re reactive, it ends up costing significantly more than when we’re proactive.”

The engineers’ group applauds President Trump for bringing needed attention to fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, both during his campaign and since taking office. But it also notes his call to spend up to $1 trillion on infrastructure is not enough and that his plan to leverage private investment is inadequate.

“We, the American people, will have to pay for it,” says ASCE President Norma Jean Mattei. “There’s no magic wand to address this crisis, no infrastructure money tree, no infrastructure private sector angel.”

The ASCE is calling for a huge, 25 cents per gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax to help pay for infrastructure improvements. The group notes that the current tax of 18.4 cents per gallon hasn’t been raised since 1993 and so hasn’t kept up with inflation and growing needs.

But recent efforts to raise the gas tax even just a few cents or a nickel have been political nonstarters with Republicans in Congress. So a proposal to more than double the motor fuel tax is not likely to get off the ground.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer says President Trump is likely to stick with his original plan.

“I think we’re looking at a public-private partnership as a funding mechanism,” Spicer said in his briefing Thursday. “There’s a lot of work being done behind the scenes and I don’t want to put a timeline on that.”

Despite the urgent call from the engineers, Spicer says for now, infrastructure will have to wait until after the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act and reform of the tax code.

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Sports March 9, 2017

Barcelona Defeats Paris-St. Germain In Stunning Champions League Comeback

Over the course of two matches, the Barcelona soccer team pulled off a win for the ages as they climbed back from a 4-0 hole in the Champions League tournament to beat Paris-St. Germain 6-5 in aggregate.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Remember when the New England Patriots came back from 25 points down to win the Super Bowl? Yeah, that was a piece of cake compared to what happened in the world of soccer yesterday.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Here, I’ll set it up. The Champions League tournament – Barcelona versus Paris Saint-Germain. Paris Saint-Germain were big underdogs. They’d never won this tournament before. Meanwhile, Barcelona are basically the Patriots. They’ve won it four times in recent years.

CORNISH: At this stage of the tournament, the teams play each other twice. The goals from both games get added together, and the club that scores the most overall moves on to the quarter finals. And in the first game, the French team surprised many by winning big against the Spaniards four to nothing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: And one of the greatest occasions in Paris Saint-Germain’s history – this. Make no mistake about it.

SIEGEL: That meant Barcelona had to score five more goals than Paris Saint-Germain in the next game, or they’d be done. And for anyone who’s ever sat through a nil-nil finish, you know how rare goals can be in soccer.

CORNISH: Last night, the two teams faced off again, and Barcelona clawed their way to a 5-to-1 lead, but winning by four wasn’t enough. They needed one more goal. And so it came down to the final frantic seconds.

SIEGEL: A cluster of players jockeying for position near the Saint-Germain goal. One of Barcelona’s superstars, Neymar, lofted the ball just over their heads. And the unlikeliest of heroes – a guy who hadn’t played at all in the first half named Sergi Roberto – timed it perfectly. He stuck out his foot and volleyed the ball toward the net.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: It’s a stretch, and it’s in. And I can’t remember the last time I saw something like this.

(CHEERING)

CORNISH: The moment sounded a little different in Spanish.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCERS: (Yelling in Spanish).

SIEGEL: And it was downright heartbreaking in French.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #3: (Speaking French).

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Laughter).

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #4: C’est pas possible. C’est pas possible. C’est pas possible.

SIEGEL: C’est pas possible. It’s not possible.

CORNISH: Nice try, PSG. Thanks to that stunning comeback, Barcelona is on to the quarterfinals in the Champions League.

(SOUNDBITE OF LL COOL J SONG, “MAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health March 9, 2017

The Winners And Losers In The Republican Health Care Plan

NPR takes a look at who stands to benefit and who could be hurt if the House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare becomes law.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Medical and consumer groups alike are warning that millions of people could lose their health care if Republicans make good on their promise to scrap the Affordable Care Act. But as their legislation makes its way through Congress, President Trump is saying pay no attention to the critics. Trump tweeted this afternoon that the end result will be, quote, “a beautiful picture.” NPR’s Scott Horsley reports what that picture looks like depends on where you’re standing.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Every insurance system relies on a basic bargain. People pay in during good times so they can draw out when times are tough. With health insurance, people in good health subsidize those who are less so. And since none of us knows when we might get sick, we play along.

Obamacare adds two more subsidies to that basic formula. Young people are asked to pay more for insurance so older people can pay less, and the wealthy pay additional taxes to help cover costs for the poor. By undoing those subsidies, the Republican replacement plan would shift costs from young to old and rich to poor. The forecasting firm S&P Global estimates on balance, 6 to 10 million people might lose insurance coverage. But S&P director Deep Banerjee says more young people would likely sign up.

DEEP BANERJEE: We expect gains from individuals in the age group of 21 to 35 but losses from individuals in the age group of 45 to 64.

HORSLEY: That’s because the Republican plan allows insurance companies to offer stripped-down policies that would be cheaper and more attractive for young people even as the price of policies for older customers goes up.

A typical 21-year-old, for example, might be able to find coverage for around $2,600 dollars a year, most of which could be paid for with a $2,000 tax credit from the government. But a 64-year-old trying to buy insurance might have to pay five times as much, and the maximum tax credit in the GOP plan of $4,000 would cover less than a third of that.

BANERJEE: Two-thousand dollars for someone in their 20s does go a long way, which is why we think there will be more people in that age group who can afford it and will sign up. But the 3,500 or 4,000 for somebody in the 50s and 60s really doesn’t go a long way.

HORSLEY: So young people win, and older people lose under the GOP plan. There are regional variations as well. Unlike Obamacare in which subsidies are based on actual insurance costs in a given area, tax credits in the Republican plan are the same all over the country. That’s good for people living where health care and insurance costs are low, trouble everywhere else.

The American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association have come out against the Republican plan. Both groups say they’re worried about what would happen to the 20 million people who got coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

KAREN TEITELBAUM: People who are just getting used to having care may feel that they don’t have a choice now in terms of primary care physicians and good prenatal care.

HORSLEY: Karen Teitelbaum is CEO of Sinai Health System which operates four safety-net hospitals in Chicago. Before the Affordable Care Act, about 15 percent of her patients were uninsured, and the system spent $50 million a year on charity care. Both those figures have been cut in half thanks to Obamacare. Teitelbaum says Sinai’s been able to invest the savings in preventive health measures and improve treatment for mental illness, programs that could be in jeopardy under the GOP plan.

TEITELBAUM: We’re going to have to perhaps cut back on services if the plan really rolls back coverage for those most in need because those are the very people that we see.

HORSLEY: So safety-net hospitals and their patients could be losers. Big winners include the wealthy. Obamacare is funded in part with extra taxes on people making more than $200,000 a year. Roberton Williams of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says scrapping those taxes would put tens of billions of dollars back in the pockets of the wealthy.

ROBERTON WILLIAMS: It’s almost all the very richest tax payers. And the bulk of the money is coming from people in the very top 1 percent, people with incomes over about $700,000 a year.

HORSLEY: Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan wants the House to pass the repeal and replace bill within weeks. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Entertainment March 8, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: Extraordinary Women in the Movies, Build Your Own Baby Groot Sidekick and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Women’s Tribute of the Day:

In honor of International Women’s Day, here’s Darth Blender with a supercut of extraordinary women movie characters:

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Filmmaker in Focus:

For Fandor Keyframe in honor of International Womens Day, Catherine Stratton spotlights early filmmaker Alice Guy-Blache:

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DIY Fan Build of the Day:

Learn how to make a little Baby Groot puppet that sits on your shoulder, which would be a great accessory for your Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 cosplay (via io9):

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Cosplay of the Day:

Speaking of babies and cosplay, here’s our favorite baby cosplayer dressed as Moana just in time for the home video release:

Bad Film Analysis of the Day:

Speaking of Disney movies, ith the live-action remake arriving soon, here’s a video on the hidden meaning of the animated Beauty and the Beast according to an alien in the future:

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Movie Parody of the Day:

Funny or Die makes Get Out all too real and political by mashing the hit horror movie with the current First Family:

.@JordanPeele‘s Horror film “Get Out” meets the only thing that could make meeting the parents even scarier, President Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/FLylMad3H5

— Funny Or Die (@funnyordie) March 6, 2017

Vintage Image of the Day:

Cyd Charisse, who was born on this day in 1922, and Gene Kelly rehearse the “Broadway Melody Ballet” sequence from Singin’ in the Rain in 1951:

Movie Trivia of the Day:

Learn a bunch of numer-based facts about Star Wars with this graphically clever video from Filmumentaries:

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Supercut of the Day:

Candice Drouet links a number of right-moving tracking shots from movies, including The Shining, The Big Lebowski and Boogie Nights, in her latest Really Dim video:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of Franco Zeffirelli’s The Taming of the Shrew starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Watch the original trailer for the Shakespeare adaptation below.

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Business March 8, 2017

Episode 596: Hacking The iPhone For Fun, Profit, And Maybe Espionage

An iPhone.

Sefa Karacan / Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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Sefa Karacan / Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

This episode first ran in 2015 and contains explicit language.

Every time there is a big new release of some software, an operating system or a new browser, hackers get to work. Each new release is the start of a race because there are all these giant players who desperately want to find the new flaw in the software.

For the people who find these flaws, there’s money to be made. But it’s not just hackers looking for these glitches. Wikileaks released documents showing how the C.I.A. uses different software tools and techniques to break into phones, computers, and Internet-connected televisions.

Today on the show, the story of one man who stumbled on a flaw in Apple’s operating system, a way to hack the phone you might have in your hands right now.

Music: “Soul Sista” and “Good To Be Bad.” Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.
Subscribe to our show on iTunes or PocketCast.

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Health March 8, 2017

Trump, Democrats Look For Common Ground On Drug Prices

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., listens as Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., speaks to members of the media Wednesday outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington following their meeting with President Trump.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

For years, congressional Democrats have tried to pass legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for millions of beneficiaries.

Now, they believe they have a not-so-secret weapon: President Donald J. Trump.

On Wednesday, U.S. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) met privately for about an hour with Trump and his newly appointed HHS secretary, Tom Price, to discuss ways to combat high drug prices. They were joined by Dr. Redonda Miller, president of Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The Congressmen pitched a House bill that would expand the federal government’s ability to negotiate drug prices, and they left feeling optimistic about what Trump will do.

“He made it clear to us that he wanted to do something,” Cummings said, characterizing Trump as “aware of the problem” and “enthusiastic.” Cummings is ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Trump tweeted the day before his meeting with Cummings and Welch that he is “working on a new system where there will be competition” in the drug industry.

I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry. Pricing for the American people will come way down!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017

After the meeting, the president relayed his desire to work “in a bipartisan fashion to ensure prescription drug prices are more affordable for all Americans.”

Allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices is not a new idea, but Cummings and Welch painted a picture Wednesday of a political landscape that is ripe for change. They said they have a president who “gets it.”

And, Welch said, “the price is starting to kill us, we just can’t afford it.”

The lawmakers said they handed Trump and Price the most recent draft of the bill for their review and to make comments. Cummings said he hopes to file the bill in two weeks.

A summary posted on the House committee website, said the proposed legislation would enable HHS secretary to negotiate lower prices with drug manufacturers under Medicare Part D, which provides coverage for prescription drugs bought at pharmacies.

An estimated 41 million Americans are covered by Part D. The drug benefit is provided through private insurers who each have their own formulary (a list of allowed drugs) and generally use pharmacy benefit managers for drug purchasing. The latest proposal would direct the HHS Secretary to establish a formulary.

The formulary would be used to “leverage” the purchasing power of the government, according to the summary.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and now president of the American Action Forum, said the idea of lowering prices through Medicare Part D negotiations is “completely unrealistic.”

Holtz-Eakin points out that insurers are already used to managing health care for beneficiaries and there are formularies in those plans. Adding into the law that the HHS Secretary should be part of the negotiations merely adds a “bully pulpit,” he said.

“The problem with the negotiation in Part D is not a political, partisan problem — it’s that it won’t work,” said Holtz-Eakin, adding that the Medicare Part D program is already holding prescription drug costs down because of the negotiating ability of the drug plans.

Trump himself, though, has long embraced the idea of Medicare negotiating drug prices. On the campaign trail in January 2016, he reportedly told a crowd in New Hampshire that Medicare could save a huge amount of money by getting discounts, as the biggest buyer of prescription drugs.

“We don’t do it,” Trump said that day, according to the Associated Press. “Why? Because of the drug companies.”

PhRMA, the drug industry’s powerful lobbying group, says price negotiation is already happening.

“Large, powerful purchasers negotiate discounts and rebates directly with manufacturers, saving money for both beneficiaries and taxpayers,” PhRMA’s Holly Campbell said Wednesday, in an email.

She pointed to a Congressional Budget Office report that said HHS would not be able to negotiate lower prices than already exist.

Trump met with pharmaceutical executives in January and told them, “We have to get prices down for a lot of reasons. We have no choice.”

Umer Raffat, a research analyst at Evercore ISI, said the industry felt less jittery after that meeting. They walked away understanding that President Trump wants to “promote innovation” while addressing prices.

Sarah Jane Tribbleis a senior correspondent atKaiser Health News, an editorially independent newsroom that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN’s coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

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Sports March 8, 2017

Dutch Players Take Leave From Spring Training For World Baseball Classic

NPR’s Robert Siegel talks to sports journalist Jonah Keri about the role of Dutch players in the current World Baseball Classic being held in South Korea. Several of the players have chosen to take leave from spring training with their American teams to attend the tournament.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

I feel like I’m about to do one of those commercials aimed at an aging demographic in which a man with gray hair, if any, says something like this – if you, like me, suffer from advanced baseballophilia (ph), there are two things you can do about it this month.

One is the old fashioned treatment – watch pointless spring training games from Florida and Arizona. The other is guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of any truly addicted baseball fan. Watch the World Baseball Classic, baseball’s attempt at a World Cup. Teams from 16 countries are competing in four pools. It’s great fun. Sportswriter Jonah Keri joins us now. And, Jonah, are you as enthusiastic about the World Baseball Classic as I am?

JONAH KERI: Well, absolutely. And the thing that makes it exciting is that the players are invested in it. I mean, you could tell what indifference looks like. If you’ve ever watched an all-star game of any sport, that’s what indifference looks like. But here, the players are hanging on every pitch. They’re representing various nations and doing so with pride. And it really has generated a lot of excitement that way.

SIEGEL: The action has begun in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, where pools A and B are taking place. And so far, we know three of the teams that are advancing to the round of eight, Japan – which would be considered a favorite, they’ve won a couple of World Baseball Classics – the Netherlands and Israel. The Netherlands, the Kingdom of the Netherlands as World Baseball power, tell me about that one.

KERI: Well, it’s an interesting one. And you’re not – maybe what you might think of as a typical Amsterdam native doesn’t necessarily apply. A lot of it are Dutch colonies, you know, places like Curacao that have delivered some terrific baseball talent. You think of guys like Xander Bogaerts who’ve emerged as young stars in Major League Baseball leading that club.

So that’s what really what we’re talking about. And you could say the same thing for Israel. We’re not talking about native-born Israelis. In that particular case, we’re referring to – I guess you could call them members of the tribe that chose to play for the team. So the selection criteria by which you could play for a given nation, Freddie Freeman playing for Canada, not a Canadian, but has Canadian parents.

SIEGEL: Now, in the case of the Dutch team, you mentioned Bogaerts. Didi Gregorius from the New York Yankees is also playing. Several of their best players are playing. Not so the United States, you know, Mike Trout, probably best in the game, he’s not playing. A lot of players have decided it’s not worth missing spring training or risking an injury for the flag.

KERI: Yeah. Just to put a fine point on Mike Trout, we might be talking about the second coming of Willie Mays. I mean, that’s how good he’s been over the first few seasons of his career. But, you know, you look at the rest of the roster, there’s still plenty of talent. And the players that are on the roster speak with pride about it.

So even though you might have a case where some players say, listen. It’s a long season. I have to really pay attention to my regimen. And I can’t commit to this. There’s a little bit of a risk. There are plenty of guys that are embracing it.

SIEGEL: You mentioned the Israeli team, which so far hasn’t filled in an actual Israeli, although there is, I believe, one on the roster. Ryan Braun, who was born in Jerusalem, is not part of the team. But there are several present or former high Minor League and Major League players. Sam Fuld is starring for this team.

KERI: Yeah. I can confirm that Sam Fuld is not Israeli because his parents live in Durham, N.H., across the street from where I used to live in Durham, N.H. So that is in fact the case. But he is another one of what you would call the members of the tribe and has had a pretty distinguished Major League career and is one of the leaders of a surprisingly talented club.

They do have some pretty interesting characters on that team. We’ll see if they go up against some of the powerhouses, be it the U.S., the Dominican, what have you. But for now, a very impressive showing, 2-0 in the first round.

SIEGEL: And the Israelis, I think, do win the prize for best large stuffed mascot in their dugout.

KERI: Oh, no question about it. They refer to him as the Mensch on the Bench, looks a little bit rabbinical in nature and just could not be better. That’s definitely been one of the highlights of the tournament.

SIEGEL: Sportswriter Jonah Keri on the World Baseball Classic. Thanks, Jonah.

KERI: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAWES SONG, “ONE OF US”)

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